You have to look at how a player will respond once his bank account explodes. Alex Mack is going to be the same player, the same person.

BEREA, Ohio – The bass line thumps inside the Browns' fieldhouse and Alex Mack is stomach down on the turf, slowly arching his back.

As teammates whisk past en route to their next exercise, the center holds the pose, muscles in his back firing, like a man following the direction of a yoga instructor only he can hear.

Prior to each practice, players go back and forth across the field’s width, loosening limbs and strengthening cores. Mack’s routine resembles performance art. On one bent knee, he thrusts his arms to the left of his head and draws them above his 6-foot-4, 311-pound frame. He stretches muscles the way politicians do the truth.

“I definitely take more time as you can tell,” Mack said laughing. “I think I’m better at it, I’m more flexible. That sounds bad, but I’m just a pretty flexible person. Some people are stiff, some people are loose. I’m a pretty loose person.”

In five seasons, Mack has become one of the NFL’s better and more durable centers, never missing a snap in his first 75 games. He’s also evolved into somewhat of a renaissance man, an erudite athlete who travels the world with varied interests.

His exercise routine serves as a metaphor for his approach to life: He is someone willing to stretch himself to the limit on and away from the field.

“Alex is one of the most unique players I’ve ever been around,” former Browns linebacker Scott Fujita said. “He’s got such great balance in his life.

“A lot of times we glorify players who eat, sleep and breathe football, and that’s great. But Alex is one of those guys who’s very well read, he’ll think nothing of just taking off and flying to Thailand in the off-season. But when he shows up to work nobody practices harder or plays harder. He finishes to the whistle and beyond.”

His flexibility and that of the organization’s will be tested at season’s end. Despite the overall struggles of the offensive line, Mack is enjoying another strong campaign in a contract year. He has stuck to his policy of not publicly discussing negotiations, offering no updates Wednesday. But when asked to measure his game against some of the league’s top centers, he didn’t hesitate to answer.

“I like to watch film on other guys who are good players and see what they do against other opponents,” he said. “I’m right there, without a doubt. I’m not big on tooting my own horn, but I think I’m right there.”

Balancing act

The youngest child of Steve and Cheryl Mack grew up in Santa Barbara, Calif., as a self-starter. There were always expectations for the family’s only son, but Mack didn’t require a nudge or a push.

In an age of specialization, he played football, wrestled and competed in track and field. He learned the value of stretching as he molded himself into one California’s top heavyweight wrestlers.

“I think it, without a doubt, helps you resist injuries,” Mack said. “When someone flies in there and hits and you have to bend backwards ... if you’re used to bending backwards things probably aren’t going to snap, crackle, pop or tear.”

View full sizeBrowns center Alex Mack has gained a reputation for going all out on the field, even playing through an appendicitis attack in 2011.John Kuntz, The Plain Dealer

At San Marcos High, he played football for a position coach, Dennis Kittle, who threatened to cut off the fingers of any offensive lineman caught holding. It was here where Mack grasped the importance of maximum effort, ending every practice by running up a hill 10 times at full speed.

“I don’t think he would have actually cut my fingers off, but he used to clean his fingernails with a pocket knife,” Mack said.

At the University of California, he was as passionate about his education as his football, graduating with a degree in legal studies and winning the Draddy Trophy, awarded to college football’s top scholar-athlete. He remains a voracious reader of historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy. He most recently finished Hugh Laurie’s “The Gun Seller,” a spoof on the spy genre.

“If I find something I like I work at it,” Mack said. “Football was definitely of high importance, really high importance, but school was also something that was important to me -- getting good grades going to class every day.

“There was a balancing act between the two and you learned where you could cut corners and where you couldn’t.”

Mack is forever expanding his horizons. In March, he took part in an NFL Hollywood Boot Camp, in which he learned the art of film making at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

He has a deep appreciation for the military and was honored to lead the Browns onto the field for the Nov. 3 game against Baltimore carrying the American flag alongside a serviceman. In 2011, Mack visited U.S. troops based in Southeast Asia as part the NFL-USO program.

His curiosity with foreign cultures is without borders. He could compare passports with diplomats having made trips to Australia, Bali, England, Greece, Italy, Japan, Spain Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey.

“Alex is one of these people who could walk into a bar where he’s never
been and strike up a conversation with the bartender and the guy sitting
on a stool next to him,” Fujita said. “Not a lot of people can do
that.”

Teammates rave about Mack’s intelligence, but Fujita said his athleticism is highly underrated. During the 2011 NFL lockout, Browns players assembled in Texas for workouts. Fujita said Mack’s fitness level was tops on the team.

“We designed this conditioning test and he did it in the time defensive backs would do it,” Fujita recalled. “Alex just blew it out the water. It was shocking.”

Mack exhibited his toughness during that season by playing through an appendicitis attack. A year ago, Baltimore Ravens nose tackle Haloti Ngata, an All-Pro, called him the best center in the AFC North, a division that includes Pittsburgh stalwart Maurkice Pouncey.

“He’s real physical and real smart,” Ngata said of Mack, who reached the 2010 Pro Bowl as an alternate.

What he craves more than individual accolades is team success, something that’s eluded Mack since the Browns made him the No. 21 overall pick in 2009.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “You do what you can, keep at it and do what’s expected . . . I want to show the best I can no matter what the scenario. I just want to keep improving and keep refining my game.”

Uncertain future

In training camp, Mack said he was "really happy" with the Browns and loved playing for offensive line coach George Warhop. Around the same time, Browns General Manager Michael Lombardi said the 28 year old fits the profile of a player the organization hopes to re-sign.

But there’s virtually been no news about a possible contract extension for Mack, who’s represented by agent Marvin Demoff. It's unlikely the Browns would use the franchise tag on the center because they would have to pay him the average of the NFL’s top-five offensive linemen.

Even as he praised his play, coach Rob Chudzinski would not get drawn into talk about whether he’d push management to yoke Mack to a long-term deal. Free agency opens March 11.

Former Pro Bowl offensive lineman LeCharles Bentley said the Browns could find a younger, cheaper replacement in the draft or free agency, but he would not match Mack’s quality. The Cleveland native considers the incumbent a top-10 center “hands down” and arguably in the top-five category.

“He has been everything he’s been asked to be as a first-round pick,” said Bentley, who runs an offensive line performance training facility in Arizona. “Alex has lived up to the billing and played at a high level from a consistency and durability standpoint.

“He has been a tremendous asset to the Cleveland Browns brand, which is important when you talk about paying football players a lot of money on their second deal. You have to look at how a player will respond once his bank account explodes. Alex Mack is going to be the same player, the same person. He’s always going to represent the Browns well just like (left tackle) Joe Thomas.”

As the Browns try to salvage a once-promising season, Mack will continue to pile up the snaps while the league waits to see who gives him a pay hike from his $3.7 million base salary.

In the prime of his career, Mack has blossomed into one of the Browns’ most reliable players – a statement most would agree is no stretch.

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